PAUL DZIALO: It takes a special person to do home care

It takes a special individual to care for home care clients: people with big hearts and a lot of compassion. On this Labor Day, I’d like to thank my workers – and all those who open their hearts and do the incredibly hard work of caring for vulnerable elders and people with disabilities.

As owner, president, and CEO of Affinity Home Health Care, Inc., since 2000, I know that it takes a special individual to care for home care clients: people with big hearts and a lot of compassion. On this Labor Day, I’d like to thank my workers – and all those who open their hearts and do the incredibly hard work of caring for vulnerable elders and people with disabilities.

I employ 230 home care workers – home health aides, personal care aides, and certified nurse aides – and value and respect each and every one of them.

Day in and day out, despite low wages, our aides get their clients out of bed, toileted and dressed, prepare their meals, clean their homes, do their shopping, provide them with medication reminders and do so much more.

The community doesn’t understand how valuable home care workers are until a loved one – or they themselves – needs the essential services that they provide. Then they realize that service is priceless.

When an elderly family member needs home care services, a home care worker makes it possible for his or her adult children to continue to work. Our aides give families confidence and peace of mind that their family member is getting the care that he or she needs.

Home care workers never know how many hours they will get paid for each week. The reasons for variable earnings are hospitalization, nursing home placement, or sadly, death of their clients. Any decrease in their low wages is a hardship.

In Massachusetts, we are required to pay our workforce minimum wage and overtime, but in much of the country, this is not the case. President Obama promised almost two years ago that he would change the federal regulation, known as the “companionship exemption,” that denies home care workers these basic labor rights.

On this Labor Day, it’s time for the president to follow through and provide basic labor protections to the nation’s 2 million home care aides. Not only is it just, but it is the best policy for attracting a stable, skilled and compassionate workforce.

Sometimes an aide stays late with a client because the backup aide has not arrived. Other times an aide works more hours than scheduled when another aide in her geographic area gets sick. These aides are extending themselves. We pay them for overtime hours at time and a half of base pay — and should. It still costs the state a lot less than a nursing home. Home care workers save the state money.

With the aging of the Baby Boomers, there are not enough good aides to provide everyone with quality service. I am interviewing aides all of the time despite my agency’s lower-than-average turnover rate of 20 percent a year. We provide quality jobs – including paying 50 percent of health care premiums – because we need to attract the best people we can find, if we want to provide quality services. Not everyone is suited to being a home care aide.

Page 2 of 2 - At Affinity, we treat our aides as professionals and our clients get professional service. On this Labor Day, we honor their skill, compassion, and devotion to their careers as caregivers.

Paul Dzialo is president and CEO of Affinity Home Health Care, Inc., which serves Southeastern Massachusetts.